Regional Improvement

Our Aim

Team South West’s aim is to create improved and sustainable system leader alignment to the needs of the South West region, building the capacity of NLEs and NLGs/LLGs to support targeted school improvement.

Context

SEND

We want all children, no matter their SEND or Additional Learning Needs, to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. We want to bring together mainstream schools, special schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision academies to work together across the South West to support this aim. The percentage of pupils nationally with SEN has risen from 14.4% in January 2017 to 14.6% in January 2018. Within the SW, there are 123,487 pupils with SEN, accounting for 15.4% of total pupils. There are 13 SW special / PRU schools planning on becoming academies over the next few years and the Education Secretary Damian Hinds recently announced plans to open 39 new free schools for children with special educational needs or facing additional challenges and which will see 3,500 new school places created to support them through their education. > Read More

Maths

Mathematics has a critical role to play in the future of the region’s and the wider UK economy and mathematical and quantitative skills are increasingly required, not just for traditional science, technology, engineering and mathematics routes but for a wide range of future careers. Our education system needs to develop and nurture the mathematicians of the future and this is why the DfE have created Maths Hubs across the country to support schools to raise the standard of mathematics education and backed this with £41m funding to scale up mastery mathematics teaching approaches across primary schools. Maths attainment and progress remains a particular priority for the SW region. For the last three years, the South West has performed below the national average for the percentage of students achieving the expected standard in KS2 maths. The South West was the worst performing region for the progress of students in maths at KS2 in 2017 and 2018 and progress in KS4 maths (-0.05) is also significantly lower than the national average (-0.02). > Read More

Leadership and governance

Strong leadership, including governance, is vital to ensuring that schools, academies and multi-academy trusts in the region can provide the best possible quality of education to their pupils. We know that a school or MAT cannot be successful with weak leadership, or when a governing body or trust board is not providing enough challenge to headteachers or MAT CEOs. As of January 2019, 83% of SW schools and 78% of SW academies were Good and Outstanding which is less than the 85% and 79% England averages respectively. Whilst there are some signs this rate is stabilising, we need to do more to ensure that children and young people in the South West are provided with a good quality of education. > Read More

Disadvantage

The government is committed to making this a truly meritocratic country, where everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their hard work will take them. We want to ensure that every child in the South West has the opportunity to make the most of their lives, no matter where they live or their background. We know that as a region, we need to do more to close the disadvantage gap more quickly and more effectively. Whilst the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, measured by the DfE’s attainment gap index, has narrowed by 13% at key stage 2 and 9.5% at key stage 4 since 2011 (the year the pupil premium was introduced), attainment or progress for SW disadvantaged pupils is often not improving as well as for their peers i.e. the gap is unfortunately widening when you look across the 2017 and 2018 outcomes, both at KS2 and KS4. Narrowing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils compliments the aims of the £72 million investment nationally in Opportunity Areas where we are working collectively to break down the barriers to social mobility that too many still face. > Read More

Our Objectives:

To provide NLGs, NLEs, LLGs, Heads and emerging leaders with a bespoke annual training entitlement to equip system leaders in the region with the skills needed to deliver/sustain support to the schools that need it most, driven by the SW priorities (eg. PP, SEND, Maths, Leadership, Coaching, SRM

Work with all partners to identify vulnerable schools to ensure that they get the support they need (eg. via the RSC, Local School Standards Boards, LAs, Interim SI offer etc)

Develop a SW leadership succession planning strategy to develop leaders and governors for the future across the sector.